Should you ask your donors if they would like to pay the credit card fees for their gift?
Turns out you probably shouldn’t – look at this test done by the always-helpful NextAfter.
Their test showed that asking people making a gift online if they would like to cover the credit card fee of their donation resulted in raising 20.5% less than not asking donors to cover the fee.
Many people chose to pay the credit card fees. However, what also happened is that many people saw the option to pay the credit card fees and chose to not give at all. The result was a 20.5% drop in net revenue. (Click through to the post itself for all the details, which are fascinating if you like that kind of thing.)
Keep this study handy the next time “giving donors the option of paying credit card fees” comes up at your nonprofit!
hi, great test, but definitely recommend testing it at your organization or better yet, using it as an argument to ask donors to consider a recurring gift from their bank account, no credit card fees. Just think of all the money that can flow to the mission.
Totally agree on the test idea. I should mention that I shy away from recommending testing often because the Fundraisers we’re trying to reach are mostly from smaller Orgs that don’t have the quantity or budgets to test. So I tend to stick to making considered recommendations. But I LOVE your idea to mention, when asking for recurring gifts, how gifts from the donor’s bank account ‘go further’ because they avoid the fees. That’s so smart, Erica!
yes, you’re right, for smaller orgs, go with what works for bigger ones.. but then again, also, getting the fees paid for does help for those too.